BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 19. Azerbaijan ranks among the countries most affected by mine problem, Assistant to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan - Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmet Hajiyev told reporters on the sidelines of the 29th High-Level Meeting themed "Pathway to COP29: Sustainable and Resilient Future" in Baku today,TurkicWorld reports.
"Not just for military reasons, but also after the war, the Armenian side deliberately deployed mines everywhere to impede Azerbaijan's reconstruction and restoration efforts, therefore inflicting the greatest amount of human suffering. This is the targeted mine terror policy of Armenia. Looking at Armenia's policy, we see that mining was carried out not only along the former line of contact but also in areas that had no military significance. The goal of this is to kill people and implement a policy of mine terrorism.
When we analyze the facts related to recent mine explosions that have harmed people, we again see that most of the mines explode not on the former line of contact but in areas far from it. I want to emphasize once more that this is Armenia's policy of deliberately implementing mine terrorism. The mine maps provided by Armenia were ineffective, did not reflect the actual conditions on the ground, and were not provided in full. The responsibility for mine terrorism lies directly with Armenia," Hajiyev said.
To note, after the 2020 second Karabakh war, more than 360 people have become landmine victims in Azerbaijan's liberated areas, resulting in 68 fatalities and over 290 injuries as of May 2024.
